Synthesizer, bongos, oboe. In the small church, as bright as it is crowded, the joyful atmosphere carried by the cosmopolitan choir, like the parish and the town of 30,000 inhabitants, contrasts with the tragedy of what happened, just behind this same altar, on July 26, 2016. The stole stained with the browned blood of Father Hamel, placed at the back of the choir, still bears witness to this: ten years ago to the day, the priest of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, 85, was assassinated by two Islamist terrorists at the end of weekday mass, in the presence of a couple in their eighties and three nuns from Saint-Vincent-de-Paul.
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